Education
Understanding how to improve the availability and quality of education is an important
part of the Academy's agenda. Reports on educational reforms at the primary and
secondary level, on the governance of universities, and on the changing structure
of research institutions have resulted from ambitious projects that examined teaching,
research, and outside influences affecting education at every level.
Current projects look at the feasibility, and social ramifications, of providing
universal basic and secondary education to all the world's children between the
ages of 6 and 17; the challenges facing traditional notions of academic freedom;
methods for improving critical-thinking skills among students enrolled in kindergarten
through higher education; and effective means for teaching science to liberal arts
majors at American colleges and universities.
Current Projects
- Science in the Liberal Arts Curriculum:
Less than one-third of American undergraduates major in the natural sciences, mathematics,
or engineering. This project examines the goals of science requirements for nonscientists,
and how students fulfill those requirements, in an effort to inform curriculum policies
at higher education institutions.
Past Projects
- Universal Basic and Secondary Education:
This study investigates the rationale, the means, and the consequences of providing
high-quality primary and secondary education to all the world's children.
- Academic Freedom: In
response to political and social tensions that threaten the open exchange of ideas
on academic campuses, the Academy convened a group of Fellows to explore ways the
Academy can advocate for and defend academic freedom.
- K-16 Education and Evidence-Based Policy:
This project brings together experts from education, law, statistics, economics,
policy studies, and business to assess how critical thinking is taught and to propose
ways to strengthen these skills.
- Changing Student Demographics in Colleges
and Universities: This study explored the impact of growing racial and
ethnic diversity on colleges and university campuses and the responses of faculties
and administrative leaders to these demographic changes.
- Trends in American and German Higher
Education: This project examined higher education and research in Germany
and the United States, and the needs and challenges that lie ahead.
- Principles of Conduct for Professors:
An Academy study group looked at the intellectual and ethical dilemmas faced by
U.S. professors as they balance responsibilities to their students, their disciplines,
the university, and the broader community. An occasional paper, Evaluation and the Academy: Are
We Doing the Right Thing?, is available in PDF format.
- The Transition From Paper:
Using the field of chemistry as a case study, this project probed how the expansion
of electronic communications is altering the collection, dissemination, and storage
of scholarly information in the sciences.
- Center for Evaluation: This
multiyear program used meta-analysis techniques to research, evaluate, and assess
new educational policies and interventions.
- 1990s
- 1980s
- 1970s
- 1960s
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